A K Bhattacharya: A shift for IITF grounds

RAISINA HILL

More than three million people visited the two-week long 24th India International Trade Fair (IITF) that concluded last Saturday. This means the average number of visitors to the Pragati Maidan fair grounds in New Delhi was more than 2,00,000 a day.

Even with 1,20,000 square metres of covered exhibition space in 16 halls and another 10,000 square metres of open exhibition space, managing such a large number of visitors for two weeks must have been a gigantic task.

The management of traffic outside the fair grounds was far more efficient this time. The movement of vehicular traffic was slow on the roads around Pragati Maidan, but there was none of the chaos of previous years.

Car parking was also more disciplined. This is not an argument in favour of continuing to hold the annual fair in Pragati Maidan. All it proves is that if the Delhi traffic police decides to enforce discipline, even such a massive flow of traffic can be managed.

Indeed, the growing popularity of the IITF underscores the need to move the venue of this annual event to a new area on the outskirts of the city. India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), which organises the international trade fair, should hold only smaller exhibitions or conferences at Pragati Maidan and develop a new complex for its grand annual event.

There are many such small exhibitions held round the year. By organising them at Pragati Maidan, ITPO will ensure that the existing facilities do not go waste.

This strategy will make good business sense, too. Given the response from participants and visitors, IITF can be a money-spinner for its organisers.

There were about 7,000 exhibitors at the annual show. ITPO officials do not share information on how much they charge the exhibitors, but this is a revenue stream that is substantial and can be exploited more profitably.

Since the IITF is backed by the Indian government, as many as 30 countries set up their stalls at the fair. More than 80 delegations from 35 countries were expected to visit the fair (the final data on the number of visiting delegations is not yet available).

A welcome change was the way ITPO showed business sense by introducing differential pricing of entry tickets for ordinary visitors. Entry tickets for weekends and public holidays were priced 50 per cent higher than on weekdays.

How much would ITPO have collected from the sales of entry tickets? A conservative estimate will put the total revenue at over Rs 7.5 crore. This can easily be doubled by increasing the entry ticket prices.

Apart from preventing traffic snarl-ups in the capital during the fortnight-long fair, there are many other advantages of shifting the venue of the IITF to a new complex that ITPO can build in the next couple of years.

A larger complex will be able to accommodate more exhibitors and visitors. This will mean more revenue. The business potential can also be better exploited if ITPO can successfully leverage a virtually captive audience of two lakh people a day to charge higher fees from those who take part in the fair.

ITPO should learn a few lessons from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which holds an engineering exhibition every alternate year at Pragati Maidan. When the engineering fair started in the late 1970s, there were many protests from the Trade Fair Authority of India, which felt it had a monopoly over holding all national fairs in the country and particularly at Pragati Maidan.

But the CII managed to overcome this resistance and continued holding the exhibitions every alternate year. Today, it is a big technology show that both the government and industry are proud of. What's more, the CII show is a hugely profitable venture and it receives no subsidy or concessions.

In terms of organisational skills, ITPO (which was formed after merging Trade Fair Authority of India with Trade Development Authority) is no patch on the CII. Yet ITPO manages to draw large crowds for its annual fair. What it underlines is that there is a huge market for an annual international exhibition.

This opportunity can be converted into a real gain, if only ITPO gets more professional in organising the annual fair, provides more services to the participants and introduces more commercial logic while fixing entry ticket prices and renting out the fair premises to exhibitors.

A critical element in this strategy would be to set up a much bigger fair complex on the outskirts of the city, which will offer better infrastructure to exhibitors and visitors.

Delhi will, thus, remain relatively unaffected by the traffic dislocation that is otherwise caused when the fair is held at Pragati Maidan. ITPO will earn more revenue. Trade and industry will also benefit. It is a win-win situation. Why there should be any debate over the proposal is still a mystery.